Re: Gender gap persists in Canadian teenagers' writing sk ill

["Devine, James" <jdevine@xxxxxxx>]

Title: RE: [PEN-L] Gender gap persists in Canadian teenagers' writing skill

the BUSINESS WEEK article was pointing to more than test scores. They basically were saying that the entire US educational system was currently favoring those with a full complement of X chromosomes.

Among other things, they said that males were disproportionately represented in special education classes and among those taking Ritalin and the like for ADD and ADHD. This is true, but BW seems to assume that special ed. and Ritalin are necessarily a bad thing. Special ed. can be great if it's financed and run well, while the problem with Ritalin isn't the drug itself as much as the fact that it's over-diagnosed.  The problem is that schools tend to see Ritalin and even special ed. as a magic bullet for any "discipline problem."

------------------------
Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kenneth Campbell [mailto:kkc@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2003 12:01 PM
> To: PEN-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [PEN-L] Gender gap persists in Canadian teenagers' writing
> skill
>
>
> Some time ago, Jim D. asked about the phenomenon of boys
> faring worse in
> school tests than girls.
>
> The problem has existed in Canada, too, for some time.
>
> Here's an article, stripped of melodramatic anecdotes, that highlights
> the ongoing problem. The recent tests would appear to show some
> improvement in boys' scores largely due to the changed nature of
> questions -- perhaps implying that the "language correctness" of
> questions was lessened. (And the process of getting a question vetted
> and accepted is, I understand, a phenomenal process that is even more
> arduous that getting a news feature through CBC editorial committees.)
>
> Having two girls, it would be easy for me to ignore this trend, as it
> would seem to benefit them in the short-run, university admission and
> resultant income generation/welfare. A competitive advantage.
>
> But, obviously, it will not do in the long-run...
>
> Ken.
>
> --
> Tories, with the brats and wives
> Should fly to save their wretched lives
>           -- American Independence War song
>
>
> --- cut here ---
>
>
> Gender gap persists in teenagers' writing skill
> Boys trail by up to 16 percentage points in national test
>
> Heather Sokoloff
> National Post
> May 28 2003
>
>
> Almost half of Canada's 16-year-old boys write so poorly that their
> answers to a national writing test were barely comprehensible.
>
> Boys are catching up to girls on a national writing test, but almost
> half of the country's 16-year-old boys write with so many errors their
> answers are barely comprehensible.
>
> Girls scored 10 to 16 percentage points higher than boys in the
> evaluation of 24,000 students aged 13 and 16. When the test was
> administered in 1998, boys' scores lagged by 25 to 30 points
>
> "That is still an enormous gap," said Dr. Paul Cappon,
> director-general
> of the Council of Ministers of Education Canada, the national body
> representing provincial education ministers that administered
> the test.
>
> "We have got to do better."
>
> Among 16-year-olds, 69% of girls met test-makers' expectations, versus
> 53% of boys.
>
> Among 13-year-olds, 88.5% of girls met expectations, versus
> 78% of boys.
>
> The gender gap was as pronounced in Quebec, the
> top-performing province,
> as in Saskatchewan and Atlantic Canada, the areas with the poorest
> results.
>
> Dr. Cappon said three-quarters of students who wrote the test
> indicated
> they want to go to university or college. "Boys are not going to get
> into university, or complete post-secondary education, with that level
> of writing ability."
>
> The 16-year-old boys who failed to meet expectations did not attain a
> level of writing where "errors do not interfere with communication,"
> according to test-makers. Their writing also did not convey a clear
> perspective, develop a straightforward point or control conventional
> stylistic features.
>
> However, Dr. Cappon acknowledged that despite the disparity, the boys'
> scores did inch up from previous national and international
> assessments
> of literacy.
>
> The improvement is probably due to the test's new
> "boy-friendly" format
> that asked students to read about coyotes, snakes and train collisions
> and required them to write newspaper-style articles instead of
> open-ended personal narratives.
>
> Students were given a package of environment-themed readings titled
> Shared Living Spaces. Included was a table listing the number
> of species
> at risk in Canada, a poem about a moose and an article about
> Alberta elk
> being hit by trains.
>
> For years, standardized tests have shown a growing chasm in academic
> achievement between girls and boys. International tests of
> reading from
> the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development,
> released two
> years ago, showed girls significantly outscored boys in 32 countries.
> Canada scored second in the world, buoyed by a spectacular performance
> by the country's girls, while boys in many provinces hovered
> around the
> international average.
>
> Yet despite the glaring disparity -- as well as calls from Dr. Cappon
> that boys' literacy problems be addressed with the same urgency as
> girls' underperformance in math and science has been for two
> decades --
> government officials have done little to change curriculum or
> evaluation
> methods to counter boys' weaknesses.
>
> Last month, New Brunswick, a province that traditionally
> performs poorly
> on national assessments, became the first Canadian jurisdiction to
> single out male elementary students as a disadvantaged group requiring
> additional attention, along with aboriginal students.
>
> A handful of high schools in Quebec are experimenting with single-sex
> classes, putting girls and boys on different sides of the same school.
> In Ontario, Hamilton's public school board will open the district's
> first single-sex junior-high program next fall.
>
> Durham's school board, east of Toronto, uses the Oshawa
> Generals junior
> hockey team as literacy advocates. Teachers also try to give
> little boys
> more frequent breaks and hands-on activities to sustain their
> interest.
>
> Such practices are bolstered by recent research that says it is a myth
> that boys do not read or write -- rather, traditional
> standardized tests
> might be inappropriate ways to measure boys' literacy skills.
>
> However, Edmonton's public school board, considered among the most
> innovative in the country, decided against starting an
> all-boys program
> two years ago, even though the district is home to a popular all-girls
> school.
>
> Shelly Peterson, a professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in
> Education, said boys do not like to follow directions and
> their writing
> often does not conform to the detail-oriented styles traditionally
> preferred by test-makers.
>
> "I'm not sure that we have tapped into the North American
> ideal of what
> it means to be a boy in our writing instruction," she said.
>
> Kathy Sandford, a professor of education at the University of
> Victoria,
> has even suggested teachers allow boys to bring Pokémon trading cards
> into the classroom, let them go on Internet chat rooms and encourage
> them to relate school texts to television shows such as The
> Simpsons as
> a way of getting them more interested in traditional classroom reading
> materials.
>
> Dianne Cunningham, chairwoman of the education ministers' council and
> Ontario's Minister of Higher Education, said provincial governments
> should consider the new results very seriously. "This is a very
> significant finding. We must do better."
>
> She added one of the most important things parents can do to
> help their
> children is read to them at home.
>
>
> hsokoloff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>